Food, health and fitness advice while vegan in a sad, S.A.D world.

Category Archives: Home

I’m sure stranger questions have been asked, but I can see why this may cause some confusion. The microwave is a wonderful tool, but it’s a fact of life that any type of cooking changes the chemistry of food. It can reduce the levels of some nutrients, just as it can increase the levels of others (e.g. lycopenes), or make them more or less available to the body for use. I’m not the biggest fan of the microwave as a cooking tool as I was a Chef for many years and simply prefer traditional cooking techniques.

Consequently, our microwave is used for storage. I can’t tell you how wonderful the reactions are of friends and family when they first see this, I get a kick out of it every time.

Steven Smith Teamaker Peppermint Leaves Tea

Steven Smith Teamaker is a local tea making company here in Portland, Oregon and they are the bomb! If you’re tired of sachets of flavorless herb dust then look no further because this tea is sure to please.

Measuring spoons and a mini wooden spoon

Dagoba Organic Cacao Powder

We usually get carob powder, but one day (several months ago) we decided on cacao. We don’t really use carob or cacao powder all that often anyways, so this canister is still half full.

Chia Seeds

We’ve had these for a while now and we don’t really ever think about them. We bought chia seeds after reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and Eat & Run by Scott Jurek, as I’m sure most people did upon completion. We never really go into them and so here they are… waiting to be consumed.

Sweet Leaf Sweet Drops in Vanilla Creme and English Toffee

I’m still on the fence about these, mostly because of a certain sensation I get on my tongue from them. However, they are tasty and add variety to smoothies.

Flavorganics Organic Extract in Peppermint, Coffee and Coconut

These extracts are also to provide variety in smoothies. I love the peppermint one, the coconut is a little subtle and tastes more like coconut water than coconut milk and the coffee is super strong. Out of the bunch the coffee is my least favorite, but if you dig coffee and enjoy that lingering flavor then go for it!

Cardamom, Nutmeg and Cinnamon

Cinnamon is one of my favorite spices, I adore it in both sweet and savory dishes. Cardamom is amazing in mango smoothies and nutmeg is great around the holiday season (banana nog!).

Vegan Cane Sugar

If you aren’t on a vegan diet, chances are you didn’t know that all sugar isn’t considered vegan. It doesn’t come from an animal so what’s the issue? Bone char, usually made from the bones of cows, is used in the decolorization process for sugar – meaning it whitens the sugar through a filtration process. I’m not down with this process so I get vegan sugar for our smoothies when fruit isn’t optimal.